Saturday, January 25, 2014

Best of 2013

It's time to close the book on another film year and 2013 was a fascinating one indeed. The year got off to an underwhelming start, particularly with a slew of disappointing summer blockbusters. However, everything changed for me during an October trip to New York. While attending the New York Film Festival (as well as catching some regular screenings), I found a pair of masterpieces. Those two films eventually remained as my top 2 of the year, but many others came along after them that I also cherished.

Most notably, it became clear that it was an outstanding year for documentary films. Perhaps this perception was due to a more active engagement with the genre, but it's hard to remember such a strong slate. In fact, 2 of them landed in my top 10 and a few others were close behind too. Outside the docs, the list was more or less my usual mix of indies, foreign films and mainstream fare. As always, I've included all the films that received a 4.5 or 5-star rating. So without further ado, here are my favourite films of 2013. They are listed in ranking order, starting with my #1:

Gravity
12 Years A Slave
Short Term 12
Blue is the Warmest Color
The Place Beyond The Pines
Gloria
Life According To Sam
The Way Way Back
The Great Beauty
20 Feet from Stardom
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Blackfish
Pacific Rim
The Selfish Giant
Iron Man 3

Bonus: Click for episode #202 of the LAMBcast where I discussed my Top 5 films in further detail.

Great list...I love the mentions for Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer and Iron Man 3. The former is such an underrated film, and, as you pointed out, is another reason why this was such a good year for documentaries.